Document Reveals Military Was Concerned About Gulf War Vets' Exposure to Depleted Uranium

Source: Truthout

Document Reveals Military Was Concerned About Gulf War Vets' Exposure to Depleted Uranium

Wednesday 28 July 2010

by: Mike Ludwig, t r u t h o u t | Report

For years, the government has denied that depleted uranium (DU), a radioactive toxic waste left over from nuclear fission and added to munitions used in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, poisoned Iraqi civilians and veterans.

But a previously undisclosed 1993 Defense Department document written by then-Brigadier Gen. Eric Shinseki, now the secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), shows that the Pentagon was concerned about DU contamination and the agency had ordered medical testing on all personnel that were exposed to the toxic substance.

The VA, however, never conducted the medical tests, which may have deprived hundreds of thousands of veterans from receiving medical care to treat cancer and other diseases that result from exposure to DU.

The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center recently reported that ten years of data confirm that service members tend to have higher rates of certain cancers compared to civilians, according to the Army Times. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/military_cancer_rates_statistics_072010w/ While researchers suspected that service members are diagnosed with cancer more often and at a younger age because they have guaranteed access to health care and mandatory exams, the data does not explain the disparities in diagnosis among branches of the military. For example, the rate of lung cancer among sailors is twice that of other branches, while Marines have much lower cancer rates across the board.



Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/document-reveals-military-was-concerned-about-gulf-war-vets-exposure-depleted-uranium61781

But most of the higher ranks and civillians working in the pentagon didn't want to lose that cushy executive job from the same companies who created these poisons.

Of course handling DU shells and breathing in the dust after the impact and disintegration is a whole other situation. I finally put him on ignore since he obviously is a military shill.

Even handling the shells isn't safe. The reports I saw talked about the high incidence of rectal cancer in soldiers who repeatedly sat on crates of DU ammo in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles in Iraq.

And the person you referred to also asserted that DU exits the body through urine. Not so. It's detectable in urine, but it settles in the lungs, bones and other tissue. And it just keeps irradiating it's victims for life.

I did the show 6 years ago, and don't have my notes anymore. And I'm too lazy to go back and research it again.

But, the shit should be banned. Period. Along with white phosphorous ammo and napalm that we supposedly don't use any more.

DU. Ha!